{"slug": "joanna-stern-on-the-pixel-11-hilight-notification-light", "title": "Joanna Stern on the Pixel 11 ‘HiLight’ Notification Light", "summary": "Joanna Stern reports that Google's Pixel 11 'HiLight' notification light lets users assign different colors to VIP contacts, but at launch it only works for phone calls, not messaging. Google said it is 'continuing to invest in this technology' and that messaging notifications are coming. Stern criticizes the limited launch support, noting the feature seems incomplete.", "body_md": "Joanna Stern, writing The New Thing (gift link):\n\nI used to love the blinking notification light on my BlackBerry, and later my Droid 2. It was a simple way to know I had a message without actually looking at my messages. Then BlackBerry let you customize the color, and it was a rainbow dream.\n\nGoogle’s HiLight takes it a step further by letting you assign different colors to VIP contacts. So when your phone is face down, you can tell who’s trying to reach you without picking it up. It looks cool. The big bummer? At launch, it only works for phone calls.\n\nGoogle told me it’s “continuing to invest in this technology” and that messaging notifications are coming. Still, it’s odd they aren’t there at launch, especially since Google found plenty of colors for Gemini. The ring changes hue depending on whether the AI is listening, thinking or responding.\n\nI have no interest in this because I few years ago I stopped ever putting my iPhone on any surface face down. I don’t use a case, so setting the phone face down is a good way to pick up scratches. I stopped doing that, ever, and now I’ve got a nearly year-old iPhone 17 Pro that seemingly doesn’t have even a *micro* abrasion on the display glass.\n\nAnd it seems downright goofy that it’s launching with support only for phone calls. Google can’t even launch a blinking light right on these Pixel phones.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/joanna-stern-on-the-pixel-11-hilight-notification-light", "canonical_source": "https://thenewthings.com/p/the-new-pixel-feature-i-want-on-my-iphone?gift_content=e9bf3ebd-db33-4ee5-91b0-84d7acac3263", "published_at": "2026-08-12 21:23:30+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-12 21:43:06.435520+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-products"], "entities": ["Joanna Stern", "Google", "Pixel 11", "HiLight", "BlackBerry", "Droid 2", "Gemini", "iPhone 17 Pro"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/joanna-stern-on-the-pixel-11-hilight-notification-light", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/joanna-stern-on-the-pixel-11-hilight-notification-light.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/joanna-stern-on-the-pixel-11-hilight-notification-light.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/joanna-stern-on-the-pixel-11-hilight-notification-light.jsonld"}}